Polymerizable vinyl monomers are known in the art as photo-reactive compounds. Photo-cured products of polymerizable vinyl monomers, however, lack weather resistance and chemical properties since they consist solely of organics. Many attempts were made to convert photo-reactive organosilicon compounds into organic-inorganic hybrid compounds which can overcome the problems.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for polycondensation of an acrylic functional silane to form a polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (known as POSS) which meets both photo-reactivity and receptivity to inorganic evaporation (e.g., CVD). The inventor's experimentation reveals that the POSS having a multi-functional acrylic moiety exhibits insufficient flexibility.
Various attempts were made to impart flexibility to photo-reactive organosilicon compounds. For example, Patent Document 2 proposes a long-chain linker between an acrylic moiety and a silicon atom and Patent Document 3 proposes to introduce a urea structure into such a linker. However, these techniques have the problem that the cured products have insufficient surface hardness and less amenability to inorganic evaporation as long as the inventor studied.
Recently, attention is paid to the precise control of polycondensation of organosilicon compounds. For example, Non-Patent Document 1 reports highly selective synthesis of a silicon compound by hydrolytic condensation of an amino-functional organosilicon compound with a superstrong acid. Although Non-Patent Document 1 aims at structural analysis of the organosilicon compound and refers to the formation of a regular structure two-dimensional film, it refers nowhere to the industrial applicability of the two-dimensional film or further molecular transformation of the compound into a useful compound. Since the point of view is different from Patent Document 3, it is not believed that the organosilicon compound can be readily converted into a useful compound by similar urea type molecular transformation.